Circular Vacuum Chamber for Uniform Plasma Polymerization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing plasma nanometer coating devices face issues with small batch processing, low efficiency, high cost, and poor uniformity due to the square vacuum chamber design, which limits the volume and uniformity of the coating process.
Innovation Solution
A plasma polymerization coating device with a circular or regular polygon cross-section vacuum chamber, featuring porous electrodes, discharge cavities, and a rotation rack, which enhances the uniformity and efficiency of the coating process by stabilizing plasma species concentration and substrate positioning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a square vacuum chamber is used with small volume, then coating uniformity can be maintained, but processing batch size and efficiency are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the vacuum chamber cross-section from a square shape to a circular shape. This curved geometry eliminates the corner effects present in square chambers, where plasma species concentration and coating uniformity are problematic. The circular cross-section ensures uniform plasma distribution and coating thickness across the entire substrate surface, achieving less than 10% thickness difference while allowing larger chamber volume for increased batch processing capacity.
2Device complexity
If a square vacuum chamber is used, then device structure is simple, but coating uniformity across different substrate positions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a circular cross-section design for the vacuum chamber, which fundamentally improves plasma species distribution uniformity. The curved geometry ensures that all substrate positions are equidistant from the plasma generation region, eliminating the non-uniform coating problems inherent in square chambers. This geometric modification achieves superior coating uniformity while maintaining reasonable structural complexity.
3Productivity
If vacuum chamber volume is increased for larger batch processing, then processing efficiency improves, but coating uniformity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The circular cross-section vacuum chamber design enables uniform plasma distribution throughout a larger volume. The curved geometry ensures that even as chamber size increases to accommodate more substrates, the plasma species concentration remains uniform across all processing positions. This allows the system to achieve both large batch processing capacity and high coating uniformity simultaneously, with thickness variation less than 10%.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution achieves uniformity in substrate coatings with a thickness difference of less than 10% and significantly increases processing efficiency by allowing a larger vacuum chamber volume, enhancing batch processing capabilities.
Implementation Method 1
plasma produced during discharge is used for surface cleaning and pretreatment of the substrate
Implementation Method 2
the porous electrodes are connected with a high frequency power source with a power of 15-1000 W; the porous electrodes are powered by the high frequency power source; plasma produced during discharge
Implementation Method 3
plasma processing is performed on an organic gaseous monomer through discharge to produce various kinds of reactive species; and an addition reaction is conducted between the reactive species or between the reactive species and the monomer to form a polymer film on the surface of the substrate
Implementation Method 4
Plasma polymerization coating processing
Data Source
Figure 1~2
AI summary
A plasma polymerization coating device belongs to the technical field of plasma engineering. Any cross section of a chamber body inner wall of the side part of a vacuum chamber of the device is a circle with the same diameter or a regular polygon with the same edge length, wherein the regular polygon has at least 6 edges. Porous electrodes are installed at the inner wall of the vacuum chamber. The porous electrodes are connected with a high frequency power source. At least two discharge cavities are installed on an outer wall of the vacuum chamber in a sealed manner. At least two layers of metal grids are arranged at where the discharge cavities connect to the inner walls of the vacuum chamber. A tail gas collecting tube is vertically provided along the central axis of the vacuum chamber. A rotation rack is disposed in the vacuum chamber. The rotation shaft of the rotation rack is coaxial with the central axis of the vacuum chamber. The substrate to be treated is placed on the rotation rack. The structure of the central and axis symmetric vacuum chamber is adopted in the device to keep the stability of the concentration of the spatial polymerization reaction active species, and has the advantages of large volume of the vacuum chamber, large batch in single processing, high processing efficiency, low cost and good uniformity of batch processing.